In Understanding Deception: Part 2, I introduced the concept of reading your own hand and using that process to identify situations where you tend to play too straightforwardly. In this installment I wanted to offer a few specific examples of how to add deception to your game.
If you’ve Playing Deceptively – Part 3: Adding [...]

In Understanding Deception: Part 1 I introduced the notion of a deceptive strategy as opposed to a deceptive play. A slowplay by itself, for instance, cannot be deceptive because it is just one play. Indeed, if you slowplay habitually you will often end up with a strategy that is not deceptive at all.
A deceptive strategy [...]

Lately I’ve been thinking about deception in poker, and I decided to write a modest series of articles describing my take on exactly what deception means and how to play in a deceptive way.
I think if you asked people to define what it means to play poker “deceptively” I think most of them would mention [...]

The idea of a player “limiting” their hand range is a critical hand reading concept. The basic idea is this: Anyone who has a very strong hand wants to get money in the pot. They’ll be looking for an opportunity to do that. If your opponent bypasses one or more excellent opportunities to go for [...]

In no-limit, fairly frequently you have to lay down “big” hands like top pair, top kicker or a medium two pair because your opponent is representing something even bigger. Unfortunately, these are also sometimes hands you want to beat your opponent into the pot with. It can be hard to figure out if this is [...]

In Part 2 of Moving Up: Beyond Winrate And Bankroll, I discussed how the relative strength of your hand reading skills versus your opponents’ is a big factor in whether you’re ready to move up or not. The river betting round is the one that allows you to benefit most from sharp hand reading, [...]

In Part 1 of Moving Up: Beyond Winrate And Bankroll, I claimed that the two factors most cited in discussions of moving up, winrate and bankroll, don’t tell the whole story. If you’re thinking about moving up, you should consider some other factors just as much.
The first factor is your overall comfort level at your [...]

Are you ready to move up to higher stakes? How can you know when you are?
These questions are on the minds of most serious players at least some of the time. Conquering your current game and moving on to bigger and better things is the goal of most players.
Most discussion about moving up I see [...]

Your opponent – perhaps sensing weakness or perhaps taking leave of his senses – pushes out a huge bet and dares you to call. If he has the hand he’s supposed to have, you’re crushed. But you think something is amiss and decide that this is it. You’re going to take a stand. Just after [...]

Dry boards sometimes offer a golden opportunity to get extra value for your medium strength hands like top pair. Many players are always looking to sniff out a bluff on a dry board, and you can use that fact to your advantage if you have a hand that beats a typical bluff catcher. In particular, [...]